I’m on Maverick’s left. Darryl comes up beside me, sandwiching me between the two men, and I clamp my mouth shut as he brushes up against my side.
My skin crawls.
He nods at the empty stage. “Shame you had to see that,” he says, and he’s a damn liar. No way he didn’t at least arrange for that to happen because we’re outsiders. Message clear, Darryl. If he’ll do that to one of his people, he’ll do it to us, too.
“He broke the rules,” is all Maverick says.
“You understand. Good. That’ll make this easier all around.”
That’ll makewhateasier?”
He waits until we’re halfway back to his house before I have any idea.
“Alexandra here can spend the night with the wives I won’t be needin’.” Oh, barf. What does he do? Rotate them in and out of his bed, leaving the others in another room in the house until he requires their services? “They’ll take care of her for her big day tomorrow.”
Hang on?—
“Tomorrow?” I ask softly. I want to get out of East Jerseynow. I played their game. I took that tour, I ate dinner, I watched him sentence a man to die. I’m done. “What do you mean?—”
Maverick speaks over me, raising his voice in an effort to drown out mine. “Does she really have to stay with the other women? I… come on, Darryl. I wanted to be able to spend one more night with her.” He lays his hand on my upper bicep, rubbing his thumb along the back. “Just in case.”
It’s like they’re speaking another language. I don’t understand any of it. Not why Maverick is agreeing to us stayingover, not why he doesn’t seem surprised by anything that’s happened since he heard that whistle, and especially not why he’s doing his best to let Darryl think there’s something going on between us.
Okay, so maybe I shouldn’t have grabbed his hand, and maybe I’ve stuck to him like a shadow all day, but that’s it.
And what doesjust in casemean? Just in casewhat?
I’m not sure I want to find out.
There’s Darryl’s Santa laugh again. He rubs his belly and winks at Maverick, a secret between them. “All right. I got ya, Brooks. I think I can arrange for you to have one more night with your girl, and I hope—if you like her as much as I think you do—you’ve got something really good to offer up tomorrow.”
I can’t help it. I’ve been a good little girl, quiet and unassuming except for my earlier outburst, and that’s so not me. “I don’t get it,” I blurt out, and I’m the only one who doesn’t. “Whatistomorrow?”
Darryl gives Maverick a sly look out of the corner of his eye. “You mean he didn’t tell you ‘bout our rules before he brought you to us?” I guess the blank expression on my face is enough of an answer for him because he clucks his tongue. “No wonder he tried to pass you off as a guy. But rules is rules, as I always say, and tomorrow you’ll take part of the most important one we got.
“Tomorrow, you go up on the block.”
CHAPTER 15
“An auction?” I toss my pack on the lone bed in the small room with so much force that it hits the mattress and bounces right back onto the floor. I don’t even care. So what if the antidote smashes? An antidote won’t stop me from being made some ex-con’s wife, will it? “I’m supposed to just stand there andletthem auction me off like I’m a piece of fucking cattle? They’re crazy! This iscrazy!”
Maverick looks anxiously over his shoulder. One of Darryl’s too-many wives had shown us to our room, taking great care to close the door behind her when she left. From the way he’s hovering near the doorway, he probably suspects that she’s just on the other side—either she is, or someone else in this house. To be honest, I wouldn’t put it past any of them to spy on us. I just don’t give a fuck if they can hear me right now.
Let them hear me. I want them to know how angry I am.
Some cop.Fuck. Arrest these pricks. Tear down their prison town. Do something, Maverick.
All he does is bite down, the hollows of his cheeks on display as he sucks in a breath through his nose. He doesn’t say a damn word, and after all the chit-chatting he did with Darryl earlier, I get even more pissed.
Was this a set-up?Oh, I’m so sorry, kid, I fucked up… I went the wrong way… I read the map wrong… I brought you to East Jersey to sell you to a man who already hassixfucking “wives”.
I thought I could trust him. And maybe I’m as naive as I like to pretend I’m not because I wanted to believe his apologies. His whispered promise that this was an accident.
No, Mav. An accident is grabbing my pack instead of yours in the dark. Bringing me to this misogynistic hellhole is way more than an accident.
It’s adisaster.
There’s a blanket spread across the bed, covering the pillows. A patchwork quilt is folded at the foot of it. Gathering the quilt up in my arms, I throw it at Maverick with all the strength I can muster, satisfied when he catches it with a grunt.
